'Tis the season for geeky gifts, and there are certainly plenty of them out there. It's been a happy holiday for your friendly neighborhood CNN Geek Out staff, and we'd like to share with you some of our favorite things received this year.

Nikki Rau-Baker:

This Christmas was another good one for me as I received some fairly geeky gifts.

A must for anyone gearing up for the upcoming big-screen version of The Hobbit: "The History of The Hobbit" by John D. Rateliff, covers the beginnings of The Hobbit with such tidbits of information as the original names of the dwarves and the shocking revelation that the leader was initially called Gandalf.

The Chillbots ice cube tray makes me happy as I listen to the tinkling of the robots in my glass.They’re a party hit!

As I prepare my glass of blue milk to go with dinner nothing says “I might kill you over dessert” like lighting candles in my lightsaber candlestick holders. The weight of these really could knock someone out if you decide to get into a dual after your meal, but I won’t endorse that sort of vicious behavior.FULL POST

CNN Geek Out recently spoke to hardcore gamer Morgan Webb, host of “X-Play” on G4, and asked her what it means to be a gamer and about the state of gaming in 2011.

“Unfortunately, it is a more confusing word now because there are so many different types of games and so many people playing games from on their cell phones, or on Facebook, or on many other things," she said.

"The word encompasses so many different groups, so it doesn’t really mean as much as it used to. I call myself a gamer, but someone’s mom who plays ‘Farmville’ all the time, maybe she calls herself a gamer too, and she should, because she is. I think we need words to start differentiating the subgroups.”

Webb got into gaming well before "Farmville," of course. Her first console was an Atari 2600, where she played “Combat” and “Plaque Attack” for hours on end. She is also an avowed fanatic when it comes to the “Centipede” arcade game.FULL POST

About this Blog

It takes one to know one. When it comes to topics of interest to nerds, geeks, and superfans, we know how true that is. Geek Out! features stories from a nerd's perspective that you can still share with your "normal" friends and family.